Up to this time, agglomeration of powders was achieved via spray drying, fluid bed agglomeration, or granulation.
While these techniques are extremely useful for virtually any powder, agglomerate, or batch size, they have the disadvantage of requiring an organic binder system to bring about particle adherence. The agglomerates must be subjected to dewaxing operations to remove the binder which often leaves behind a carbonaceous residue. In addition, the agglomerates must be sintered after dewaxing to produce adequate strength for subsequent processing.
In high temperature processing, in particular plasma processing of spray dried agglomerates, the possibility exists for incomplete alloying. This is due to the presence of an oxide film on the metal particles. This film is difficult to rupture using standard spray drying, fluid bed, and granulation agglomeration methods.
Therefore, a process for producing powder particles, in particular metallic powders without the above disadvantages would be advantageous.